This chapter starts with a brief survey of the basics of memory studies and
proceeds toward more complex phenomena. We discuss how the cognitive
mechanisms of storage and retrieval of information shaped the gospel trad-
ition and what makes some ideas and stories more memorable than others.
Our examples include miracles, sayings, and stories of divine call. We also
examine the process of literary composition and production in the cultural
context of ancient literacy and consider how memory studies shed light on the
writing of the New Testament.
Chapter 5 focuses on cognitive theories of ritual. In the Cognitive Science of
Religion, considerable efforts have been invested into understanding the
origins, structure, and functions of rituals. In spite of the long-standing
interest in rituals in religious studies, however, there is no shared understand-
ing of what rituals are. For the purposes of this chapter, I considerfive
perspectives on rituals, based on ritual studies and cognitive studies of rituals.
First, I consider rituals as actions without a practical purpose, a view that goes
back to Sigmund Freud and has been embraced by anthropologists and
cognitive theorists recently. The Corinthian meals as reflected in Paul’s
account of 1 Corinthians 11, as well as prayer practices in Matthew 5–6 will
be our main examples in this section. Second, I discuss rituals as the founda-
tion of human societies, a view famously defended by Émile Durkheim and
adopted by cognitive theories, particularly in the form of“costly”or“honest”
signaling as a basis of human cooperation. After taking a new look at the
Lord’s Supper and prayer, we will discuss the somewhat neglected question of
ritual singing and dances in early Christianity. Third, we will examine rituals
as tools of cultural transmission, focusing on Harvey Whitehouse’s theory of
the modes of religiosity. This will provide an opportunity to extend our
discussion of the Corinthian church beyond the question of meal practices,
as well as consider the role of emotions in a range of rituals mentioned in the
New Testament. Fourth, I turn to rituals that bring about changes in the state
of affairs, taking E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley’s Ritual Form
Theory as a starting point. This theory allows us to look at the Lord’s Supper
from yet another perspective, in addition to analyzing baptism and initiation
in the New Testament. Fifth, some theories of ritual, such as in Mircea Eliade’
work, point to the experience of the Holy as the goal of rituals. I return to a
more detailed discussion of this perspective in Chapter 7.
In Chapter 6, I deal with magic, arguing that this much-debated concept can
elucidate important aspects of early Christian practices. In particular, I suggest
that magic is connected to the efficacy of rituals (although not all magic
necessarily appears as ritual and not all rituals with an efficacious aspect
count as magic); magic involves putative mechanisms and results; and the
putative mechanisms and results of magic are (often) falsifiable by modern
scientific methods. Next, I discuss how magic is rooted in involuntary
behavioral tendencies, and argue that this connection explains practices of
Introduction 5